Dance With the Beat
by lilharuno
Summary: You're not supposed dance to the beat, you're supposed to dance with it!


Lucy Heartfilia did not dance.

She had many reasons not to. For one, it brought back painful memories of the cold, lonely Heartfilia mansion. The ballroom there was absolutely gorgeous, but it was always empty. After her mother had passed, it was never used. It was so quiet after she left. So quiet in fact, that you could hear a pin drop.

The second and most important reason, was that she _couldn't_. Dancing required eye and feet coordination, which Lucy did not possess at _all_. She would trip over her own feet and hurt her dancing partner (if she ever had one). Lucy wasn't good at "dancing to the beat" as people so called it. When she did dance, it looked like her arms couldn't stay still, and her feet moved in all directions. She was bad at dancing to say the least.

But the pink haired idiot in front of her seemed to think otherwise.

"Luce, let's dance!"

"No, Natsu. I don't dance."

"But _Lucy_."

"No, Natsu. I don't dance."

Lucy glared at him. He was doing that stupid thing where he would add emphasis to her name. It usually made her heart thump uncontrollably and submit to anything. But not this time. Definitely not this time.

Especially since they were in the guild.

Lucy had just been sitting at the bar, chatting with Mira when Natsu barged in with Happy. They caused all the usual commotion to spur up in the guild hall. All Lucy did was sigh and turn back to Mira. She noticed Mira's gaze divert from Lucy's face to something behind her. She turned around again to see what it was. Natsu was marching towards them.

And now here they were, Natsu demanding Lucy to dance with him, and Lucy vehemently refusing. Lucy didn't even know what brought this on. But it seemed that Natsu had dropped the topic when she saw him sulking away. The poor guy, she'd make it up to him some-

"LUCY!" Natsu yelled on the top of his lungs.

_What the hell is he doing?! _Lucy thought embarrassingly.

"LUCY!" Natsu repeated, only this time he came running at full speed towards her.

"Natsu, what-", she was cut off from Natsu engulfing her in a bear hug.

"Lucy! Please dance with me," he whined sadly, crushing her in a not-so-sad hug.

"Na-Natsu!" Lucy stuttered embarrassingly.

Keeping one arm securely around her front so she couldn't bolt, he yelled,

"Oi! Someone turn on some music!"

Music started blaring in all directions. People got up and started dancing, singing, and just having a good time. Lucy honestly couldn't believe it. She didn't even know they has speakers! Even Erza was dancing. Man, she was a good dancer.

Natsu suddenly tugged on Lucy's hand, yanking her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see his smiling face looking down at her expectantly. Confused, Lucy raised an eyebrow. His smile just got bigger and he nodded his head to where everyone was dancing.

_Shit_.

A thousand excuses ran through Lucy's head, but before she got to utter out any of them, Natsu had dragged her to the dance floor.

"Natsu," she started.

"Relax, Luce. It's just dancing," he smiled at her.

"Why do you even want to dance with me?" she blurted out.

"Do I need to have a reason?" he tilted his head at her, still clutching to her hand.

Damn, that made him look good.

"Well no, it's just-"

"Great then! Let's dance!"

Natsu took both of her hands into his and turned her towards him. Lucy could feel her face heat up from how close she was to him. Damn, she liked him so much. But she couldn't tell him that. Not yet.

"Uh, Luce? This is usually the part where you start dancing with me," Natsu laughed.

"Oh! Er, right," she managed to sputter out.

She was embarrassed. She was nervous. She was happy everyone was having a good time. She was not so pleased with how the music was so damn loud. She was-

"Lucy, what's wrong?" Natsu asked her.

"Eh?" she looked up to see him looking at her worryingly.

"You're not dancing," he noted.

She let out an exasperated sigh.

"Natsu, I already told you I can't dance," she explained.

"Why? You're foot hurtin' or somethin'?"

"No, it's just that… Well it's…" she started to trail off.

"Just that what?"

"Natsu," she said in a hushed voice.

"Natsu, I don't know _how_ to dance."

Natsu looked at her as if she had grown three heads. She felt her face get unbearably hot. She avoided his gaze, ready for him to start poking fun at her for not knowing how to do something so simple. She was ready to barge out of the guild doors with hot, angry tears streaming down her face. She was ready to yell at him and punch him for laughing.

What she was not ready for however, was for Natsu to _teach_ her how to _dance_.

"Oh. Why didn't ya tell me, Luce?"

"I tried to, idiot!"

He just laughed.

"Look, Luce, remember when you gave me those dance lessons?"

"That was just the basics!"

"So why don't we just start out with the basics?"

He brought her closer to him. He put his left hand on her lower back, and took her left hand into his right hand. Then he made her put her other hand onto his shoulder.

"Okay, Luce, now just follow my lead," he said.

Even though it was hard to hear him over the blaring music, she managed to catch his words. She looked down at his feet. They were moving vaguely like the waltz. She counted his steps, 1-2-3, then moved along with him. She kept fumbling. Lucy felt Natsu grasp her back firmer.

"Luce, it's okay, just keep-"

She tore away from him. She felt like a fool. Her eyes started to water with hot tears.

"Natsu, I can't. I can't do this. I'm not a good dancer. I can't dance to the beat-"

"That's why!" Natsu suddenly exclaimed.

"What?"

"That's why, Luce!"

"Why what?" she asked, irritated.

"That's why this isn't coming easy to you. You're not supposed to dance _to_ the beat, you're supposed to dance _with _the beat."

Lucy was stunned. She wasn't expecting that from Natsu. He made everything sound so simple. She looked up at him to find him grinning like a fool. She felt herself grin like a fool when he took her hands back and resumed their position.

"O-okay," Lucy breathed out hesitantly.

"Just follow my lead, Luce," Natsu stated gently.

Lucy started to get the hang of dancing. It was all thanks to her stupid partner. Her lovable dragon. Her silly best friend. It was all thanks to _Natsu_.

"Thank you, Natsu," Lucy smiled up at him.

"Anytime, Luce," Natsu laughed.

She gave him a peck on the cheek, and again he caught her by surprise.

Instead of turning red and looking away, he grasped her tighter.

And he kissed her on the lips.

Lucy suddenly didn't think so poorly of dancing anymore.

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone! Thanks for reading this silly one shot (: It kinda came out of nowhere, but I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you all for such positive feedback on _The Fairy Kiss_! I honestly wasn't expecting it to do _that_ well lol. I'm thinking that the next one-shot I post may be an AU for Jerza. That couple has just fascinated me recently. Let me know what you think below!


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